Following the 1967 war, excavations took place throughout the Old City, including in the Western Wall tunnels. The latter were particularly problematic because of their proximity to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound and the fact that they ran under the Muslim Quarter. In 1981 the Western Wall Rabbi Yehuda Getz opened a tunnel leading under the holy compound in an attempt to seek the Holiest of Holies. Subsequently riots broke out between Jews and Muslims and then Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered the tunnel sealed. In 2007, a synagogue named after Rabbi Getz was inaugurated in the tunnels. The inauguration contradicted the Palestinian demand that in any Permanent Status arrangement, Israel will retain autonomy only in the Western Wall Plaza and not in the tunnels.
In 1996 the Western Wall Tunnel riots broke out following the opening of an exit at the Via Dolrosa. The decision to open the tunnel was not coordinated with the Palestinian Authority or the Islamic Waqf. Seventeen Israeli soldiers and a hundred Palestinians were killed in the riots.
The Western Wall Tunnels tourist experience is curated to represent a very one-dimensional aspect of its history. The tunnels’ multilayered history are underplayed in favor of a Judeo-centric narrative. For example, a Mamluk Bathhouse in the tunnels has been turned into a museum displaying generations of Jewish longing to Jerusalem. The exhibition does not even mention that the space housing it is a a structure from the Mamluk period.
The archaeological excavations in the tunnels are ongoing. According to the plan, the Stepped Roman street (nicknamed the "Pilgrim's Road) will link up to the Western Wall Tunnels and together they will form a contiguous subterraneous route from the Pool of Siloam through the Kedem Compound and Davidson Center to the Muslim Quarter in the Old City.